Election another step to left

U.S. not alarmed by Lugo's victory

ASUNCION, PARAGUAY — The election of Fernando Lugo as president of Paraguay signals the latest advance of the left in Latin America and the end of more than six decades of rule by a political party best known for a longtime anti-communist dictatorship. But U.S. policy makers aren't sounding alarm bells.

After sweeping to victory Sunday, Lugo quickly was congratulated by the U.S. ambassador, among other foreign diplomats. Lugo, State Department officials say, has exhibited no outward hostility toward the United States.

The now-dominant left in South America has taken on many different forms, from the stridently anti-U.S. rhetoric of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales to the generally pro-Washington sentiments of Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chile's Michelle Bachelet. Many see Lugo, 56, who as been dubbed "the bishop of the poor," as fitting into the less-hostile side of the spectrum.

"Lugo is a bit of an unknown quantity as to what might happen down the road, but the indicators are that he's a relatively moderate type," said Gerald McCulloch, a former U.S. diplomat who heads the Paraguayan-American Chamber of Commerce, a trade group.

Part of that perception stems from the broad-based representation in Lugo's victorious Patriotic Alliance for Change, whose members vary from the far left to the center to the right. The coalition's key institutional anchor is Paraguay's Authentic Liberal Radical Party, a well-established conservative party with good U.S. contacts.

Lugo's vice president is a Liberal party standard-bearer. And as president, Lugo will have to rely on the block of Liberal lawmakers to get anything passed in a divided Congress

"If you look at Lugo's alliance, there's a lot of mainstream political leaders," noted one Western observer. "It's not all campesino groups. It's not the coca-grower's union."

The latter is a reference to Morales, who emerged from that nation's coca-growers movement - long hostile to U.S. anti-drug policies - before being elected president in December 2005. A cornerstone of Morales' campaign was his alliance with Chavez and antipathy towards "imperialism" from Washington.

Lugo has studiously avoided such rhetoric. In a pre-election interview with the Los Angeles Times, Lugo noted Washington's sometimes-contradictory role in Latin America, and especially in Paraguay.

Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, who ran the country with an iron fist for 35 years, was a U.S. Cold War ally before his government's abysmal human record soured Washington and he was ousted in 1989. His Colorado Party survived and remained in power for more than 60 years before Lugo's weekend victory.

"The United States . . . has sustained the great dictatorships, but afterwards lifted the banner of democracy," Lugo noted.

However, he said Washington must acknowledge a new scenario in which Latin American governments "won't accept any type of intervention from any country, no matter how big it is." It is a sensitive issue that resounds throughout South and Central America.